THE FAITHFUL AND THE FAITHLESS.

"Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you" (Col. 4:14).

"There salute thee . . . Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers" (Philem. 23, 24).

"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world (age), and is departed unto Thessalonica. . . . Only Luke is with me" (2 Tim. 4:10, 11).

There are solemn lessons, particularly for those who essay to serve the Lord in the ministry of the Word, in the manner in which the Holy Ghost, through the apostle Paul, links the names of Luke and Demas in the three passages quoted above.

A careful reading of the Acts would seem to indicate that Luke, the writer of the book, joined himself to the apostle about the time that he, having been forbidden of the Spirit to preach the word in Asia, or to go into Bithynia, went down to Troas, and thence to Macedonia. In Acts 16:10, after relating the vision of the man of that country who prayed Paul, saying, "Come over and help us,"
Luke writes:"And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." The use of the plural pronoun in the first person makes it evident that the writer was one of the company, heretofore composed of Paul, Silas, and Timotheus.

From this point on, the faithful physician-evangelist is ever linked more or less closely with Paul. With him he shares hardships to which his early training could scarcely have inured him; with him he enters too into the joys of spiritual conquests as he beholds the power of the name of Jesus made manifest among Jews and Gentiles.

Occasionally we miss the familiar yet unobtrusive "we" and "us," as Luke remains here or there, evidently for the further establishment of some whom Paul had to leave abruptly, owing to persecution or lack of time; but everywhere Luke is the dependable, steady-going, devoted servant, who, perhaps more than any other, understood and could care for the physical needs of the great apostle of the nations. He never vaunts himself, nor mentions his departure on special missions, his remaining in this or that place, nor his rejoining the company. In chap. 20:4, seven helpers are mentioned; but the name of Luke does not appear. Only the "us" in the 5th verse lets us know that this scholarly doctor of medicine was along as "he that serveth."

He seems to have spent some days with the brethren at Troas on his return, but he makes no mention of a special welcome to what may have been his home-assembly. He is ever the hidden one (vers. 6, 7). Leaving Paul to finish his ministry, he was with those who "went before to ship and sailed unto Assos," where Paul joined them after the breaking of bread on the first day of the week.

He is intimate enough to plead earnestly with the apostle, beseeching him not to go up to Jerusalem; but when the journey is decided on, he is one who says, "The will of the Lord be done"; and from this time to the end he is ever with Christ's honored servant, even to sharing his imprisonment.
In all the record of the Jerusalem and Caesarea imprisonments we see no sign of his characteristic "we," or "us"; for one figure alone engages our attention there. But in chap. 27:i again we get it. "And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius," etc.; and thus we learn that Luke is still with Paul, possibly, as his physician and body-servant; for it was evidently voluntary on his part.

He accompanied the apostle to Rome, was with him in his first imprisonment:and when he was re-arrested, and awaiting martyrdom, he is still the same faithful, unswerving companion, and Paul writes from the depths of the Mamertime dungeon, '' Only Luke is with me! "

Blessed, faithful man! Thy lowly life, so like thy Master's, speaks loudly to us all, calling away from self-seeking and indifference to Christ; calling away from paths of ease and comfort; calling from personal independence and worldly glory, to a life of toil, of rejection, of devotion to Christ and His truth! Not once named in all the book of Acts, which he penned himself, or in his Gospel either,- there is another book in which his name shall shine as in letters of gold when he gets his Lord's approval "in that day."

But he is, as we have noticed, thrice mentioned in connection with another servant, of whom, alas, we have a different story to tell, for the warning of all who venture, without counting the cost, on the path of discipleship and service.

"Luke and Demas," "Demas and Lucas":thus are the two names connected. Once Luke takes precedence. Again, it is Demas. How closely were these two men linked in their effort to serve the Lord, and to minister to His apostle! And how strange that in the book of the Acts no mention is made of Demas at all! It is idle to think of party feelings causing the omission of his name. God's Spirit inspired the holy record. He would not permit the name of Demas there, among the list of those devoted to His service. In the Epistles he is mentioned, but in such a way as to speak most solemnly to us all.

"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present age, and is departed"! What a tale of a heart never weaned from the vanities of earth-or, that" has fallen back into them! How long it took to reveal the true state of affairs we know not. When he joined and when he left the apostolic company we cannot tell; but several years at least must have elapsed between the writing of the letters to Philemon and the Colossian gathering, and that to Timothy. And Demas, who joined in loving greetings in the former two, has "departed," and is stamped a lover of this unholy age in the latter.

Unhappy Demas, how many imitators hast thou had since!-how many who once fought well and promised fair but who turned back when came the crucial trial!

God's truth ever tests those who profess to hold it. It makes claims on one that will not be denied. "Buy the truth, and sell it not"! Its cost may even be tears and blood; but the judgment-seat of Christ will prove that it was cheap at any price! The flesh would ever seek an easier way than the word and Spirit of God mark out as the path for the man of faith; but every such road leads to ruin and defeat at last.

Where will Demas be for eternity ? Was he truly a child of God, but lured away from his post by the glitter of earth's baubles ? So one would think; but he passes from our sight beneath a dark and somber cloud, and we dare not pronounce with certainty. The day will declare it. Meantime he stands a monument of unfaithfulness, who may yet serve as a beacon to us, reminding us of the folly of self-pleasing in so serious a scene as this, where Christ our Lord is still the rejected One, to whom we have gone "outside the camp, bearing His reproach," which to the devoted soul is sweeter far than all this present age has to offer.

May reader and writer travel ever in company with "Luke the beloved physician," and walk humbly and softly, that we may be preserved from the path of poor Demas, who lost all the days of his Nazarite-ship by becoming defiled by the dead when he turned aside for a perishing cluster of the grapes of folly! (Num. 6:12.) H. A. I.